Reclaiming Public Space - Magazine

Wolfgang Kraushaar. Source: ScienceImageProject.com/Sacha Hartgers

“There’s a difference between going out onto the street or settling something via smart phone.”

Wolfgang Kraushaar about staggering click figures and actual political participation in online campaigns.More ...

The Egyptian Revolution: Sherief Gaber on political participation and perseverance

The activist about the ongoing revolution and his work with the independent media collective Mosireen.More ...

Grigori Ochotin; Photo: (c) Nuria Fatykhova

“Without the arrests there wouldn’t have been any more protests” – Grigory Okhotin on the wave of civil society activism in Russia

Thousands of people have been organising activities off and online since 2011.More ...

Eyewitnesses on location: the media aspects of the Pussy Riot trial

For art activists in Russia, Web 2.0 has become a natural habitat. But in the trial against Pussy Riot, the group’s artistic self-dramatisation was largely concealed; tele-
vision also played a major role.More ...

Tobias Hering: “It’s nothing new for film to react to different practices regarding images”

The curator of the series “Upheavals: Film as a contemporary actor”, on film as a contemporary actor in digitalised societyMore ...

Capitalism CC by nc 2.0 Adbusters Culturejammers HQ

“We are waiting for the next Big Bang” – Kalle Lasn on the Occupy Wall Street Movement

One of the founders of Occupy Wall Street told Goethe.de how the movement is organised, both physically and virtually, and what will happen next.More ...

Perspectives from the field: the global protest culture in reportage drawings

There are more and more drawn images cropping up in the online media, on blogs or on artists' websites that depict the global protests of the past two years through artistic means.More ...

Pictures from Cairo: A Revolution Tells its Own Story

While the media are presently focussed on civil war-plagued Syria, the exhibition Cairo. Open City at the Folkwang Museum Essen tells of the upheavals in Egypt. The images are not merely bearers of information, but also objects of study. More ...

Weibo.com website, Photo: Chen Jianhua © ImagineChina

The Microblog Revolution of the Right to Self-Expression

How are Chinese microblogs granting China’s emerging civil society the power to articulate and initiate protest based on a sense of “superiority as new majority” by changing the traditional way of reading? Wu Qiang of Tsinghua University presents his analyses. More ...

Fighting Patriarchal Tyranny

The group “The uprising of women in the Arab world” is taking a courageous stand for gender equality. However, the activists face significant resistance: from old ways of thinking, patriarchal chauvinism – and even from Facebook.More ...

Libyan Berbers after Gaddafi’s death – children on the street in Jadu | © picture alliance / Ferhat Bouda

Post-revolution Patchwork

In their book The Battle for the Arab Spring: Revolution, Counter-Revolution and the Making of a New Era, Lin Noueihed and Alex Warren show how differently the countries affected by the uprisings of 2011 are developing.More ...

“Zone*Interdite” (i.e. prohibited area) Christoph Wachter & Mathias Jud, Exhibition view, Wilhelm Hack Museum, Ludwigshafen 2009 | © Christoph Wachter & Mathias Jud

Don’t censor me! – Internet Censorship and Other Hassles

Aside from the copyright problem, we also have the issue of free access to information. Put simply: who can see what in the Internet? The Web is by no means as consistent as one might think.More ...

Montage: megaphone in front of digital numbers; © Colourbox

The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere 2.0? – Answers from Gerhard Schulze

Does the public sphere have a different structure in the digital age than in the past? Some answers from Bamberg sociology professor Gerhard Schulze.More ...

„Radio ballet“ at Leipzig Main station; © Ligna

“To everyone!” - A Documentary on the Performance Group LIGNA

LIGNA is a group operating between radio art and performance art. They succeed in using radio as an instrument for politicising public space. A book now documents their interventions.More ...

Schloßgarten Stuttgart, Immobilienprojekt Stuttgart 21, © Yvonne P. Doderer

A “Right to the City”?! – The use of Public Spaces

Who owns the city? “It is lying on the street, hanging in trees and is hidden under cobblestones”. Initiatives are fighting for participation in shaping urban spaces.More ...

Social Media – The Che Guevara of the 21st Century?

What role do the social media play in the changes taking place in political communication?More ...

The cultural studies researcher Michael Seemann Photo: André Krüger

“If You’re Part of the World, You’ll be Part of the Internet”. An Interview with Michael Seemann

Loss of control is the term Michael Seemann uses to talk about the uncontrollability of the mountains of web data. But he believes that “filter sovereignty” can help people.More ...

“Fairly Old Hat” – An Interview with Wolfgang Kraushaar on a New Culture of Protest

Some 30 years after the last large-scale demonstrations against the nuclear power and the arms race, people are taking to the streets again.More ...

More Democratic Thanks to the Internet? Assessments by Thorsten Quandt

Thanks to the Internet anyone can speak his mind and share his knowledge. The communications expert Thorsten Quandt explains what this means for democracy and society.More ...

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